[Locoregional anesthesia in inguinal hernia surgery]

BACKGROUND

It is a current opinion that local anesthesia (LA) is the primary choice in surgical treatment of the inguinal region, particularly herniorrhaphy. The LA technique personally used for herniorrhaphy is described: it consists of iliohypogastric, ilioinguinal and genito-femoral nerve blocks, and incision line anesthetic infiltration.

METHODS

From January 1998 to April 1999, 95 patients underwent inguinal herniorrhaphy employing LA: 77 (81%) in elective surgery, 18 (19%) in emergency; 2 cases with bilateral hernia (97 total LA procedures).

RESULTS

Partial success was obtained in only 8 cases (8.4%), which required an association with a hypnotic drug ("blended anesthesia": propofol or midazolam): there were no cases of conversion to general anesthesia. Specific complications of local anesthetic drugs infiltration developed in 8 cases on 97 LA procedures (8.2%), but none required reoperation: 6 inguinal hematomas, 1 female external genitalia hematoma, 1 hematocele.

CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, it is stressed that LA is the technique of choice in herniorrhaphy and surgery of other inguinal pathologies, associating high success rates, rare complications and rapid dismissal: this allows for easy management of the patients and a very important reduction of sanitary costs. The association of LA-hypnotic drugs (blended anesthesia) represents another important resource, since it avoids general anesthesia in many cases and allows a rapid psychophysical recovery.

A clinical study of ferric sulfate as a pulpotomy agent in primary teeth

Pulpotomies were performed on 83 primary molars in 62 patients. Ferric sulfate or formocresol was placed on the pulpal stumps, and teeth were followed for 3-, 6-, and 12-month periods. After the one-year follow-up, 28 of 29 teeth treated with ferric sulfate (FS group) were considered successful and 21 of 27 teeth treated with formocresol (FC group) were judged to be successful. The FS group demonstrated greater combined clinical and radiographic success than the FC group at the one-year recall (P < 0.05). Although the results of this study are promising, further study with longer observation periods is warranted before this technique can be recommended.